The Yorkshire Dales' Weird and Wonderful Places

Since the last Ice Age, hunter-gatherers, then farmers of crops and animals, then miners, have moved into the Dales and made their mark on the landscape. From prehistoric standing stones and rock art, to lonely wayside crosses, monastic routes, packhorse bridges, medieval churches and shrines. More recently, there are follies in parkland and relics of the extraction of limestone, copper and lead. The land too holds mysteries, from fantastical wind-sculpted gritstone edges to the forbidding, dark liminal spaces of caves —once thought to provide portals to a veiled netherworld. A rich folklore attests to beliefs in fantastical creatures such as kelpies, trolls, fairies and witches, peopling untamed uplands or the cavernous underworld. Enjoy a freaky walk!